According to the report, 2010-2011 were successful years for SUN InBev Legal Department: the company was the plaintiff in 10 hearings and defendant in 33 suites for the specified period. Herewith it won claims for more than 134 million rbl. and lost more than 10 million rbl. Thus, the SUN InBev company won about 123 million rubles. It is the best figure among the largest brewing companies of the industry, many of which do not have a positive ratio of the lost and won claims in monetary terms.

It is worth noting that 2010 and 2011 were legally active years for the Russian brewers, including SUN InBev. Thus, if in 2010 the number of lawsuits was only 13 (2 as a plaintiff and 11 as a defendant) for less than 2 mln rubles, in 2011 there were 30 lawsuits (8 as a plaintiff and 22 as a defendant).

It is indicative that the quantity of claims against SUN InBev is insignificant. The fact proves competence of the company lawyers who do not let situations provoking claims happen, and legal adjustment of the company workflow. Tough competition in the brewing market and constantly evolving legislative restrictions increase requirements to a young team of SUN InBev legal department professionalss. However the company lawyers manage to provide due support to large structure of SUN InBev (10 factories and more than 280 sales offices across Russia).

“New restrictions on advertising, technical regulations and other legislative initiatives add work to lawyers in the Russian beer industry,” comments Andrey Gubka, Anheuser-Busch InBev CEE Vice-President Legal & CA. “Right from the start our legal department employs professionals who proactively approach problems and look for complex solutions even in issues regarding the whole industry. This fact allows our department work so effectively.”